Title courtesy of Stone Temple Pilots. They're coming back? How cool is that?! Considering I've seen the remnants of that band in both incarnations, Velvet Revolver (twice) and Army of Anyone. I'd see Stone Temple Pilots again. I saw them a few summers ago with Red Hot Chili Peppers, and it was decent, although both bands didn't play for nearly long enough. Hopefully next time they will.

So, Missy spoke to the Newsday editor that is writing the article for the bridal planner and gave her permission to post the pictures we took during the day of the photo shoot online, so I posted them Friday night at my .Mac website, so feel free to click on them and enjoy.

We had a very eventful weekend. Missy's younger brother got engaged on Saturday night, so that was very exciting. He was supposed to do it last weekend, but his now fiance got sick with the flu, which in turn meant he got sick with the flu. So he had to wait until this weekend to do it. Both Missy and I are both very excited and happy for them. Funny side story though. I went with Missy's brother Michael the day before Christmas weekend into the city to see the jeweler that he got recommended from his fiance's grandmother, and the jeweler that my family has used for awhile, including Missy's ring, and the ring my brother gave his wife. Later that night, Missy and I went to the movies and I got a voice mail from Michael. Turns out, the jeweler that I use is related to his fiance, Lauren. They were at a family Christmas party and in he walked. Small world, right? I hope I get the family discount when we go to buy our wedding rings!

That's all there is to report. Its Monday, and I'm tired, which sucks. Peace out.

Title courtesy of the Foo Fighters, once again. Amazing show. I can't say it enough.

So the reason for the title? The second video of Missy's bridal photo shoot has been posted online, and this one deals with the makeup. Video is found at ExploreLI's Wedding section and just click the video labeled Long Island brides have their makeup applied. Missy is one of the last ones shown, pouting and puckering while they apply something to her. I have no clue. Enjoy!

In other news, steady progress continues to be made in the diet and weight loss arena. My goal since the New Year has been to drop 10 pounds or more each month on average, so that by the time the wedding rolls around in August, I should be close to my lowest weight before I met Missy. I think if I drop another 3 next week I'll be at an even 10 for the month of February. So mission accomplished, almost! The scale is steadily going down. Faster would always be better, but I'll take what I can. Its a marathon, not a sprint, right? Plus, I really want that Wii Missy said she'd buy if I get in shape for the wedding. I'm so easily bribed, its not even funny. If only it were a guitar. But I'll take it.

Alright, back to work. The weather here sucks today, snow and ice and rain. Its going to be a fun drive home! I can't wait!

Title courtesy of the Foo Fighters! Why? Because Dave Grohl and Co. rocked my ass off last night at Madison Square Garden. Amazing show. One of the best I'd been to in awhile. Both opening acts sucked beyond belief, but the Foo's more than made up for it. The put on about two hours of good old rock and roll, and I loved every second of it. Even though I bought the tickets back in November, Missy paid for them as a Valentine's Day present to me.

The whole package consisted of dinner before the show at a good bar type pub place close to the Garden called Stout. I had actually been there once before as the meeting place before my brother's bachelor party. The food was pretty good, and of course any place that has Guinness on tap is cool with me. After that we went to Pinkberry for dessert. I had never been there before, but had heard nothing but good things, and for frozen yogurt, it was damn good. It was the most yogurt tasting frozen yogurt I'd ever had. Topped it off with Fruity Pebbles of all things, and it was damn good. Healthy too, from the looks of it.

After that we had some time to kill so we walked around the Manhattan mall, then we just gave up and went to the Garden before the first opener even came on. Missy also bought me a Foo Fighter's T-Shirt, which is cool. All in all, a great evening. But now I'm exhausted, but it was all well worth it!

Nothing much else to report. Still nothing new with Missy's model shoot. They haven't posted anything new yet, and I'm a little wary of posting all the pics online out of respect to the paper and not publishing stuff before they go to print.

That's about it. Happy Hump Day!

Title courtesy of Linkin Park, off their new album. Who knew Linkin Park of all bands would call a song Valentine's Day? Maybe one day I should listen to it!

So I have to admit, although I find it to be just a commercial holiday, and usually pretty useless, I had an awesome Valentine's Day yesterday. Well, it was more like once I left work, I had an awesome Valentine's Day. I stopped on my way to Missy's to get an extra bottle of champagne for starters. She bought a bottle for New Years, but I was so hammered by the time we got home, that we decided to wait until Valentine's to drink it. Knowing one wasn't nearly enough, I bought another.

I got to her place and said hello, and we exchanged cards, and I gave her a little something from Victoria's Secret! Our real gifts to each other, I have in my possession, concert tickets to see the Foo Fighters next week, which I bought for me, but she gave me the money for! Also, a pair of tickets to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway at the end of the month. Those are my gift to her.

After the gift and card exchange she started making dinner for us, which was this awesome Fajita Pizza recipe I found on Yahoo awhile back. Let me tell you, it was awesome. Missy hasn't cooked for me often, maybe 4 times tops, mostly because the kitchen in her apartment is tiny, but every time, she's done a kick ass job. Thankfully I got a girl that can cook! We ate dinner, drank champagne, all by candle light, listened to mellow music and had a really great conversation about everything and anything, but mostly getting married, the history of our relationship and all that stuff. Its amazing what comes out after a few glasses of bubbly! Then, I pulled off the ultimate. I put on our future wedding song and we danced in her living room. Once it was done, I picked her up and carried her into the bedroom... and that's all I'm saying.

Oh, and since it was a Thursday night, we watched Lost later in the evening! But I passed out towards the end and had to watch the end in the morning.

All told, an awesome Valentine's Day!

Hope yours rocked as well!

Title courtesy of She Wants Revenge. My spin instructor recommended them, oddly enough!

There is already a video clip up from Missy's photo shoot. Check it out at ExploreLI's Wedding Section And click the video window that says Long Island Brides Model Wedding Dresses. Missy is the one struggling to get up the stairs, in case you were curious!

Title courtesy of AFI.

So I can't resist, here's one picture from the shoot yesterday. Feel free to let me know what you think!

Title courtesy of the ever awesome U2!

Missy had her photo shoot for Newsday yesterday, and since my work schedule opened up for the day, I played some hooky, called in sick and went with her. I have to admit that it was a lot of fun to just sit back and watch as she went through hair and makeup, got into her dress, which I was assured 5,000 times looks nothing like her actual dress, and go through getting photo's taken. Of course I brought my camera along and took a ton of pictures, along with her mom and Missy once she was done. I'll be sure to post them up to my .Mac website once I've gone through and cleaned them up, got rid of red-eye, deleted the blurry ones, and whatnot. Missy had a blast, even though she wasn't too thrilled with the hair and makeup, but its not like it was for her wedding, just a photo shoot, so she was more than happy to just go with the flow and give the editors, stylists and photographers what they wanted.

I have to admit, as much fun as it was, it was kind of surreal for me. I got to sit back and watch what she'll basically have to go through on the morning of our wedding. Who knew hair and makeup took so long? I'm glad all I have to do is wake up, shower, shave and eventually throw on a tux. I have it way too easy. Women, not so much. And for some reason I got really uncomfortable when it came time for her to get in dress. Mostly because I thought that everyone around her would see her naked, but thankfully, and well after the fact, she told me all they saw was her in her bra. That's a good thing. I think my discomfort was heightened by the fact that I was standing next to her mom while she was getting dressed. I know her parents aren't naive or anything, but still. Its weird standing their while your fiance undresses, knowing you've seen it all before, while her mother, the person that gave her life, was standing right there next to me.

Anyway, all told, it was really cool. Today's Newsday was even hyping the bridal planner, coming out Sunday, March 16th, and stuff will be posted to ExploreLI soon. Once things move along, I'll happily report them here. They did do a video interview with her as well about how we met, how I proposed, what the wedding is going to be like, and so on and so forth.

Well, that's about it. Back to work!

Title courtesy of the one, the only, Led Zeppelin. I so hope they reunite again and go on a proper tour. That would kick ass in ways too numerous to count.

OK, so it hasn't been ten years, more like five since I started blogging. My first blog was on blogspot.com, but after a few months, and thanks to $40 I found in an ATM in Penn Station, I bought some cheap web hosting, used a domain name I had registered way back in 2001, and moved it over to Movable Type, and its been there ever since. One site redesign back in 2005, and I've been pretty happy about it since. I've always wanted to do more, but never found the time. Oh well, I'll take what I can get. I'm just shocked that I've written in this thing at least once a week for five years. Hell, I started thing pre-Elena days, thats hard to imagine. And now I'm less than six months away from getting married! That's beyond crazy. Five years ago I was working barely part time as a consultant, and now I work full time, basically as a consultant, so not much has changed there!

So what's the plan for the weekend? I'm going to Missy's for the night, then we'll be coming back to my parents tomorrow for dinner. We had a great spin class this morning, then I had an awesome guitar lesson, followed by some Valentine's Day shopping at the mom. Can I ask a serious question though? As a man, I have absolutely no problem going into a place like Victoria's Secret to buy underwear or lingerie for a girl. But why does it have to be so damn hot in there? It like amplifies the weird feeling of being in there in the first place as a man with no woman. But the heat or the lights in that place make me sweat like nothing else. I left there and felt like I just left the gym! Anyway, I got Missy something nice for V-Day, mission accomplished. I also got a new pair of sneakers, probably the first pair I bought since 2005! And of course I bought the requisite Valentine's Day cards for my mom and Missy.

That's about it. Have a great weekend everyone, and happy five years to me!

Title courtesy of a band called Mute Math. Check them out. I highly suggest the song "Typical" as its an amazing tune.

So its midweek and I'm sitting in the office just plugging along and thought I'd post. I'm actually making some progress this week, with many a different things! If that makes any sense. The exercise and diet are coming along nicely this week, for the first time in awhile. I think its because I know I only have six months to do this, and its now or never, especially if I want to slim down for our engagement pictures in the spring. The scale is actually moving in my favor this week, and it should continue to do so for a long time if I can stick with this momentum I've got going and don't get sidetracked by anything crappy. I'm really excited about everything, and I think I'm funneling that into developing some good habits that I'll need for the next six months or so.

Missy is super excited too. She went yesterday to a bridal salon to meet the people from Newsday, and they picked out a dress and accessories for her. She doesn't get to keep anything, unfortunately. Its probably in Newsday's best interest, since she said one girl picked out a Vera Wang gown that started at $11,000. I don't see a paper footing the bill for that. Maybe just for the rental, but not the purchase! She can't wait until the photo shoot on Tuesday, and even though she doesn't win anything, they will interview her and do a little story on all the brides in the section. So my name will most likely get in there somehow. Is it wrong that I really hope Elena and her family see it? I know Missy is going to look great, since she's so tall, skinny, and I might as well say it, just plain hot. My boss seems to have a huge crush on her, and just refers to her as "Legs." I don't know if I should be flattered or offended? I think I'm flattered. He did promise me that once I get married all that talk will stop. So that's cool.

Missy is also very excited, because for the past month her latest obsession has been going to spinning classes at my gym. She even joined, because its cheaper for her to pay monthly than it is to pay a $10 visitors fee every time she wants to take a class. We even went out on Sunday and bought special cycling shoes for better support for our feet. We also had to buy these little clips to put on the bottom of the shoes to clip into the pedals, because it allows us to pull up as we pedal instead of just pushing down, and thats supposed to work different muscles and provide a better workout. They were a little pricey, but its all worth it in the name of a good workout. And considering how much we spin, at least 3 or 4 times a week, we'll get good use out of the shoes. I used them Monday night at a class, and she's psyched to use them tonight for the first time.

So that's about it from me. Nothing else new or exciting to report. Just the same old, same old. Take it easy party people!

"Whoa! We're halfway there!"

Title courtesy of Bon Jovi. The reason? Although its not exactly half way there, I am six months, half a year, away from getting married. Scary thoughts. But good scary. I'm just shocked that its gotten this close so fast. It seems like it was just yesterday that it was the summer and I got engaged and started planning this whole shindig with Missy. Now, its less than six months away. Awesome though.

That's about it for now, as I feel like crap and am leaving work early to go get checked out by the doctor. Had a great weekend made even greater by the Giants winning the Super Bowl! Take that Patriots and your almost perfect season! Ha!

Alright, peace.

Title courtesy of Jill Sobule, not RuPaul. You know the song, I think it was on the Clueless soundtrack.

Anyway, the title doesn't refer to me, it refers to Missy. To make a long story short, two Sundays ago, I think while we were at her parents house watching the AFC and NFC championship games, her mom shows her the wedding/bridal section of the Long Island newspaper, Newsday and in it there was a call for all soon to be Long Island brides to enter in for a chance to model for the next photo spread they do. They were asking for all kinds of girls, various heights, weights, ethnicities, and whatnot. So Missy decided to enter. Almost two weeks went by and she didn't hear anything, which upset her a little bit, but it was understandable, I'm sure they got flooded by responses. Cut to yesterday when the woman from Newsday called and left her a message to get in touch with her. Missy called back and the woman explained that they had narrowed it down to 9 brides, and that the final cut was going to be 6, so she had a 2 in 3 chance of getting picked. The original entry was just 50 words on why she'd be good for this thing, but last night they needed her to e-mail a little bit more of an explanation, along with a few pictures. So we spent like an hour last night pouring over digital photos of her to find a few we liked, and then we spend even more time writing a paragraph summing up why she'd be awesome for this. We sent it off, and it was late so Missy went home.

Today she e-mailed me asking me to check her AOL mail, since she couldn't do it from school but nothing. I left class and hopped on a subway to Penn Station and when I got out I received a text message from Missy saying that they called and she got it! How cool is that? My fiance is going to be a model, if only for the local paper's Sunday bridal section, but still, how cool is that? I wonder if there will be an article to go along with it? That would be cool if my name could get in the paper too. She is beyond excited about it and I couldn't be prouder of her. I'll be sure to scan in the articles and pics and whatnot, or just post a link once its done. She said she's got to meet them at a bridal shop on Tuesday or Wednesday to try on a bunch of stuff (good thing she's already got her dress!) and then the shoot is the following Tuesday or Wednesday, whatever day the 12th of February is. How cool is that?

Alright, just thought I'd share. My fiance is a model!